The rock (artist group)
The artist group Der Fels existed from around 1920 to 1927. An exact date of foundation is unknown. It goes back to the meeting of Franz Bronstert , Fritz Fuhrken and Georg Philipp Wörlen in the Ripon POW camp in Yorkshire , England . The idea for the merger and the name "the rock" come from Bronstert, who was also particularly involved in organizing the joint exhibitions.
When I registered our work, I always stated that we were an artist. Working group, formed a federation; we would have in resp. after the prisoner met, after the prisoner, who would have put the stamp for the future on all our work. I had to state that because I had to have a logical reason why the three of us wanted to exhibit. During the permanent entry for exhibitions, I was then asked for the name of our association. Obeying the need I had to invent a name and, following an inner instinct, I found it as "the rock". Because in all the confusion of today's art, we can well describe ourselves as those who, like a rock in the sea, seek and go their own way undeterred, because I believe, as individually different as our art is, it has one thing in common all in common.
The spontaneous naming was accepted by Wörlen and Fuhrken and later expanded together programmatically. Reinhard Hilker and the Austrian painter and graphic artist Carry Hauser joined them later . Fritz Stuckenberg also took part in the last joint exhibition by these Expressionist artists, all of whom were later considered “ degenerate ” during the Nazi dictatorship .
During this time, the rock published a series of eight portfolios with single-sheet prints (Verlag Krieg, Leipzig). Enclosed with the first episode was a manifesto by Heinz Klapproth :
- Do you see things as they are? Form is disguise, deception. Things are not as you think you see them! So become still and simple because you look out of your eyes and only look at the surface. The artist fights titans, to win the soul from things, to penetrate into their depths, to overcome the surface. This is how EXPRESSION becomes. - And this unites the rock people.
Group exhibitions (selection)
- 1921: Museum Folkwang Hagen
- 1921: Hagen , Kollock Art Cabinet
- 1921: Landesmuseum Münster
- 1922: Bremen , Graphisches Kabinett Fedellisten
- 1922: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
- 1922: Kunsthalle Bremerhaven
- 1922: Hamburg , Maria Kunde art salon (graphic)
- 1922: Salzburg, Modern Gallery (State Gallery)
- 1922: Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
- 1922: Berlin , Heller Art Salon
- 1923: Werkbundhaus Essen
- 1923: Barmer Hall of Fame
- 1923: Oldenburg , Lappan Art Salon
- 1923: Ulm , Hermelin-Verlag
- 1923: Kunsthalle Kiel
- 1923: Barmen Art Gallery
- 1924: Landesmuseum Münster
- 1924: Elberfeld Municipal Museum
- 1925: Gelsenkirchen City Museum
- 1926: Vienna , Würthle Art Salon
- 1926: Eisenach , Brass Art Salon
- 1927: Municipal Picture Gallery Bochum
- 1991: Museum of Modern Art (Passau) (retrospective)
literature
- Otto Breicha, Franz X. Hofer and Franz T. Czokor : Der Fels, artist community, 1921–1927 , Wörlen Foundation, Passau 1991, ISBN 3-9802307-9-1 (museum catalog , area; No. 15 )